Amid raging row over cow slaughter in India, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat today said in Kenya, people sometimes drink blood of cows to survive, but they don't kill them or eat their meat.

Amid raging row over cow slaughter in India, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat today said in Kenya, people sometimes drink blood of cows to survive, but they don’t kill them or eat their meat.

In certain situations like famine, people in Kenya drink blood of cows to survive but they don’t kill them or eat their flesh, he said while speaking at a function here.

They insert a tube made of bamboo in the jugular vein of cows and suck blood. But in no way the animal is killed for consumption since there is a ban on cow killing in the African nation, said Bhagwat, a veterinary doctor by training.

They also ensure that while blood is sucked, the cow does not die due to it, Bhagwat added.

His remarks came in the wake of controversy over ban on beef consumption in some States, including Maharashtra, and the recent lynching of a man in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, after rumours that he and his family ate beef.